Time to deal with some more utter rubbish spouted continually by British 'big cat investigators'.
One statement originated in the book by Colin and Janet Bord, Alien Animals published in 1984. In the book the authors state that a full grown puma requires 60 lbs of meat each day to survive. Today, 'big cat investigators' continue to use this 'fact' and shows no real knowledge of the animal. In the UK I have been lucky enough to study three specific territories.
We know that a male cougar may dominate a home range of some 50 to 150 square miles. We know that a male puma living in the Cascade Mountains kills a deer or elk every 9 to 12 days and will eat up to 20 pounds of meat at a time then bury the rest for later. We saw this in Wales and elswehere but there were often longer spaces between killing large mammals as rabbits were plentiful and they provided the puma with its chase and food. A wild (adult) rabbit can weigh 2lbs + so a couple or even three killed a day cuts down the need to "eat big" -andwe can add ducks, geese and other animals to the food base.
Similarly leopards (black panthers) will eat on average about a third of the carcass of the animal they kill which works out at roughly 400kg of meat per leopard each year. Now that means it is very likely that leopards probably need just over a kilogram of meat a day -2lbs.
Whereas puma tend to bury or push their food cache into hedges etc., the leopard will place its cache in tree branches and this has also been noted in the UK.
60 lbs of meat is 27.2155 kgs per day. So 26 times more than either cat requires and so far no reports of obesity in large UK cats has been reported.
We then have thefavourite piece of tripe spouted to reporters -I assume that this is because it makes the 'big cat hunter' look macho. "You have the skin the neck of the animal killed to find the claw and teeth marks of the big cat that killed it" and I rest my case re. idiocy. Look at how the animal that has been killed has been fed on, the position of the body and you can tell whether a deer or other animal has had its neck snapped or been throat choked. In Wales the small sheep were in some cases decapitated by a powerful jaw. Despite what you might hear badgers and foxes do not take down fully grown sheep...ponies, horse foals or deer. They may well feast on the carcasses and this has been observed, photographed and even filmed -it is a free meal.
An adult leopard can snap a small animals neck and you also often see them suffocate (preferred method it seems) deer and larger prey by biting down on the windpipe/throat or mouth area. So, if you find an animal and suspect a big cat kill you ALWAYS photograph around the kill in situ as that can give a lot of information. you can then check the shoulder, throat and neck area for claw marks where a large cat may have gotten hold of the prey.
But you do not have to skin to look for these marks. If a puma or leopard has bitten an animal the signs are obvious if you know what you are doing. "B" was an Argentinian polo pony and it is possible that she survived simply from inherited instincts when a puma attacked her. It did not manage to get a secure grip so was probably bucked off. However, it did sink its teetch in.
This was so clear and obvious that any doubt puma were involved in foals having gone missing that the evidence had to be accepted. Foal remains were later found and studied and revealed the tell-tale signs of puma dentition. The bite marks on "B" were measured and were puma. One British biologist who I would love to name (a DEFRA "expert") stated that the bite marks were those of a badger. In the valley in question there were no badgers and even foxes were scare due to hunts. Several zoologists said they were brought to "tears of hysterical laughter" after reading the "badger attack" statement.
To the sides you can see areas where the cat tried to dig its claws in for a better grip and it is suspected that this may have been the female puma as the larger male would have had far more weight to bring to the attack.
My files have a lot of images of cat kills as well as scat and so on. Everything that I have was forwarded to DEFRA and this is why their 'expert' claimed a badger was involved.
Never once has skinning an animal been necessary.
The other false statement is that it is difficult to tell whether UK reports involve a jaguar or leopard. There is a difference. I can trace reports of black leopards living wild in the UK back to the 1840s (Somerset) though the legend of "Black Annis" is much older and the black cat hanging its victims in tree branches is something even then naturalists were not aware of so "some villagers" adding that to "spice things up" is hugely unlikely.
There are black puma and we know where the originakl stock was transported from and that they were on show in menageries -there is also a wealth of other material on the matter. However, a puma cannot be mistaken for a leopard or vice versa except by people who have no idea. In 40+ years I have spoken to people who wanted to report their puma sighting and theyu give accurate descriptions of the cats they were within 10-20 feet (3-6m) of and are describing black leopards. I have had others who wanted to report sighting ablack leopard and then give perfect diagnostic descriptions of...a puma. When an internationally known and highly credited senior zoologist reported his black puma sighting I had one biologist tell me "No. It was a black leopard" -self same biologist would not directly speak to or contact the zoologist to state this (apparently, it later transpired, this biologist was another DEFRA "expert witness").
The so called "Hooper Cat" (named by various police forces wildlife crimes officers) is never going to be mistaken for a leopard or puma. In fact, witnesses made the size of this cat very clear and that it was not the size or near the size of a puma or leopard (they had mostly all tried to identify the cats online).
But not once have I ever been told of a cat thayt might be a jaguar and Jaguars are bigger and bulkier than leopards with some weighing up to 250 lbs (over 113 kg) compared with the 175 lbs (just over 79 kgs) leopard. Average weights:
- Male Jaguar: 110 -120 kg
- Male Leopard: 40 - 80kg
- Female Jaguar: 85 - 90 kg
- Female Leopard: 20 - 60 kg
You will also notice the difference between jaguar and leopards heads -
As well as difference in body types -
Check out this site for more information: https://www.javatpoint.com/jaguar-vs-leopard
To reiterate: there has never been a reported sighting of or known jaguar living wild in the UK. Those reporting such and claiming to be "big cat investigators" are tall tale spinners at best. "Twice the size/height of a German Shepherd" is natural exaggeration from a witness. If something is big and black and can be seen as a big black blob on a photo taken half a mile away...it is probably a horse or cow.
There are Face Book groups and blogs out there who will combine the nonsense of cryptozoological claims and intermix them with the paranormal or UFOs. Forteans for the most part and people who have no grasp on reality.
Others profess to have been "researching British Big Cats" for years and 99% of those are people who started in the late 1990s or 2000s and were in contact with myself and much of the misquoted material they use comes from my old EAR Bulletins. The genuine naturalists who started out looking at these reports in the mid 1970s such as Arthur Cadman, John Green et al are now gone. From all of the old crew I am sorry to reportthat I am the last remnant.
From absolutely no interest in exotics from the 1970s to 1990s now everyone wants to jump on board especia;lly if they can milk the subject for their own ends. The point should be to educate the public and not try to scare or misinform it.
Read more: https://exoticanimalsregister.blogspot.com/2017/12/guide-to-main-four-uk-exotic-animals.html
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